President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. announced that Dr. Michael Alan Bernstein has been appointed to serve as Interim President of Stony Brook University in a campus-wide email sent out this afternoon around 1:30 pm.
His appointment — effective on or about Aug. 1 when President Stanley leaves for Michigan State University — was announced during a resolution at the SUNY Board of Trustees public session. In an interview with The Statesman, Dr. Bernstein said, “I’m excited for Stanley, he’s moving on to a great opportunity at a great university. I’m sorry to see him go, but I’m happy to see him move on to better things.”
Bernstein was appointed Stony Brook University’s Provost in October 2016, in which he oversaw numerous initiatives aimed at supporting the university’s missions in research, scholarship, art-making and teaching. “Michael is an outstanding selection for this role,” Stanley said in the email. “During his three-year tenure as Provost and Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Stony Brook he has made extraordinary contributions to every aspect of the University.”
Dr. Bernstein has also served as the senior vice-president for academic affairs and as a professor of business, economics and history at Stony Brook University since 2016.
Prior to coming to Stony Brook, Bernstein held academic and administrative positions at Tulane University; The University of California, San Diego; Princeton University and served as a lecturer/instructor at Yale University, Mills College and the University of Cambridge. He has also worked as a staff economist for the United States Department of Energy.
Over the course of his career, Bernstein has been the recipient of many awards and accolades, including the opportunity to be a Fulbright Scholar at Christ College in Cambridge, England. He also serves on various boards, including the Board of Directors of Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Board of Trustees of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.
“His decisive and energetic leadership has been welcome and needed, and Stony Brook University is fortunate to have his steady hand at the helm going forward,” President Stanley said.
